D-Day

Not having done any special setup for the celebration of D-Day, I decided to post a series of photos that haven't been shown here before. I did this setup back in 2020 and took a gazillion photos but only shared a few in facebook and here. 

What follows is somewhat of a timeline, showing first the Germans entering a small town in France, then fighting ensues between the occupying forces and American GI's, finally the Germans are driven out and the GI's are now in control of the town.

Ed

D-Day Tribute - Plus 1

One of the guys on facebook (Meta) used a filter to age one of the photos in my last post and I think it turned out great! Enjoy! Opa Fritz

aging by Oliver Trautman

D-Day Tribute

Today marks the 80th anniversary of the landings at Normandy that we call 'D-Day'. I just didn't get around to setting up any of my toys for the occasion 😔  With so many military toys out in The Cave, you'd think I'd be doing more with them than I am. However, I've spent so much of my time with my trains, space toys, or cars that the Little Green Army stuff gets neglected, only occasionally coming out for play. I do have a very nice D-Day playset made by BMC back in the day, but have yet to photograph it or set it up. As well, I have a bunch of 1/72 scale landing craft and soldiers, but most have yet to be photographed. Here's a few photos of some of my 1/72 scale stuff, but I also have others needing photographed.

These landing craft are all Giant Plastics (aka Giant of Hong Kong)

The group on the left are a mix of makers. The group on the right are Giant.

This next series of photos were taken in 2020 as a collection of about 80 photos. Although I had posted many of them back in 2020, they were all in color. What I did for this year, was cull a bunch of them, edit them to black-&-white, and select a bunch that would convey a timeline of sorts: Germans coming into a town and taking it over followed by American military liberating the town. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

D-Day Commemorative

The events of 6 Jun 1944 were momentous and in some way, shape, or form many of us across the globe commemorate this day. Right now we're watching "The Longest Day" one of my favorite films. Earlier today I was out in The Cave and messed around with a new diorama base I've been putzing with the last couple of weeks or so - in between working on the train layout and photographing and posting space toys  and, oh yeah, my day job LOL

I pulled out my 'thin' buildings - those made of styrene vs. expanded foam - to give everything a unified look. There's Airfix, BMC, and Britains represented here. The soldiers were a combination of Britains and 21s Century and just whatever I could find that I liked. The cobblestone road is a vinyl sheet from Lemax and is part of their Village Collection. Well, without further ado - Enjoy! Opa Fritz

The board measures 2' (60.96cm) x 4' (121.92cm)

Germans advance to outlying positions

A quiet moment

Shots ring out

The town is under fire and a lone StuG tries to intercept the advancing American army

Preparing for a fight

This advance party of Americans is going to have it tough but there are many more behind them.

Sniper

He doesn't know it yet, but this sniper is going to clock out shortly!

After a hard fight the Americans warily make their way through town

For some the war is over.